I have a 68 Cougar that was a factory 289 car that I bought as an incomplete drag car and I am currently building it for the street. It is caged, mini-tubed with a narrowed Ford 9", sub frame connectors, '69 351w to a C4 with full manual reverse valve body, and little else. No interior beside two drag seats and gauges and flat black paint. I am running skinny motor cycle sized tires on front (don’t know the number off the top of my head). The car was originally power steering and the assist ram is still attached underneath, but the pump and lines and everything else is gone. Obviously I am not going for originality here, so I was wondering if I can just remove the power steering cylinder and call it good for manual steering. It seems that every thread I have read on the subject says you need to buy all this stuff to make it manual, but it seems to me that people are trying to make it right not just making it work. Is it necessary? I am not worried about the steering feeling heavy. The car is light weight, has skinny tires, and I am a big guy with a large steering wheel. I wrestle a 60 Chevy ton and a half fire truck around with no power steering as my daily driver and don’t even notice it anymore. I don’t think a cougar could come close to that.
I drive my '69 with “fast ratio” manual steering (same as PS ratio) and it isn’t a problem even with 15" radials. Have the car aligned to manual steering specs (basically less castor, IIRC) and be sure the steering box is properly greased. Makes a big difference in turning effort.
Thanks for the quick reply and the link. Couple questions though. What does the control valve do when not controlling flow for power steering? Why must it come out? I am not trying to be argumentative nor am I implying you are incorrect. I am ignorant of how this system works and I truly don’t know.
I have several old cars. A 48 Pontiac Silver Streak, 51 Nash Statesman, 55 Ford Fairlane, 60 Chevy 1-1/2 ton truck, 62 T-Bird, 64 Rambler Classic, 65 F100. The only one that has power steering is the T-Bird and it takes power into the steering box. I was never a Mustang guy so this type of system is completely foreign to me.
There’s a piston inside the control valve that pushes fluid one way or the other when you turn the wheel. Without fluid, the ball joint where it connects to the steering gear box gets pretty loose.
It looks like the part I need is about 120 bucks. I did some looking around and that is the best price on that conversion kit that I can find. I’m not sure if it will work, but can I remove the cylinder and valve and replace the drag link with one from a manual car? They are less than $80. Thanks
If you replace the drag link, then you will have to replace the idler arm and the pitman arm also. All these parts come as matched components, be power or non power.